European Heritage Policy Agora 2024 champions quality principles in heritage conservation for resilient heritage ecosystems
From climate change, regional conflicts and wars, to rising prices and disinformation, it is a challenging time for Europe and the world. Against this backdrop, the annual European Heritage Policy Agora 2024 explored the theme of quality standards in heritage conservation and discussed the concept of heritage resilience against the volatile socio-political conditions that define our time. The Agora, held on 8 October at the Royal Palace – National Museum of Art of Romania, gathered over 150 participants and offered a strong and purposeful conclusion to the European Cultural Heritage Summit 2024.
We’re back at the magnificent @MNARArts for the #PolicyAgora 💬 Today’s discussion focuses on quality principles in #heritage conservation. How can we make #heritage practice & European policy more interconnected? 🇪🇺
Expect insights & gaps for action ➡️ https://t.co/XBQ1U3dQJD pic.twitter.com/Uwdd8jlnvQ
— Europa Nostra (@europanostra) October 8, 2024
Opening session
Jimmy Jamar, newly elected Executive Vice-President of Europa Nostra, welcomed guests and set the tone for the day. The event was inaugurated with opening remarks from Hermann Parzinger, Executive President of Europa Nostra, who called for heritage to have a stronger role in local societies and questioned whether the heritage policies of today are fit for the future.
The session continued with the presentation of the Manifesto for the Protection of Romanian Heritage by Ștefan Bâlici, President of the Romanian Order of Architects. The Manifesto gives emphasis on the mainstreaming of cultural heritage into other policy areas such as climate policy and urban planning as well as social policies among many others, a positioning inspired by the advocacy efforts of Europa Nostra to the EU.
The keynote speech was delivered by Riin Alatalu, Vice-President of ICOMOS, who stressed the importance of presenting a united front to legislators. Specifically, Professor Alatalu suggested that “Instead of accidental support, real and tactical cooperation should be very much in place. It is a waste to compete with each other. Our sector must federate to ensure our message is better heard.”
Delving deeper into the topic of quality criteria, she made clear that excellence is a process that concerns the assessment stage as much as procurement and implementation, thus, pointing to the theme of the first panel dedicated to the subject of quality assurance.
Panel 1 – EU policy and cultural heritage practice at a crossroads
Moderated by Ondina Taut, focal point in Romania for the implementation of the EU Quality Principles, the first panel of the Agora hosted a mix of policymakers and practitioners in a discussion focused on the present and future of heritage policy and funding.
The national and EU political perspective was brought to the event by several high-level speakers. Nicolae Ștefănuță, Vice-President of the European Parliament, currently serving on the Budget and Energy Committees, gave a fresh perspective on how the European Green Deal can incorporate cultural heritage into its ethos making a strong statement that, “Heritage should never be seen as an obstacle to change”. He further stated that “It is fundamental we make all topics intersectional to the European Green Deal. This would give the cultural sector increased access to funding”.
The Deputy Director for the Directorate-General for Education and Culture, Normunds Popens, took the floor to reiterate the European Commission’s commitment to culture and cultural heritage. He admitted that “We need to place culture better. The EU has many priorities, and heritage is sometimes lost among these. President Ursula Von Der Leyen has asked us to champion culture and to do this, we rely on you – the civil society sector – to help us put heritage in its rightful place.”
The Deputy Minister for Culture of Moldova, Andrei Chistol, also took centre stage and noted that his country is working to reinforce the civil society sector and to properly train heritage professionals to respond to the evolving needs of heritage on the ground. Lack of funding and capacity are the key issues in the Moldovan cultural heritage sector, which is looking to invest more resources into upskilling heritage professionals.
Other key takeaways from the first panel included the contributions of Oana Zaharia, General Manager of the National Institute of Heritage in Romania; Oliver Martin, Chair of Baukultur Alliance; and Jacek Purchla, Chair of the Europa Nostra Awards Jury. The panellists agreed on the importance of respecting public procurement procedures as well as legal frameworks that ensure direct access to public-private funds to finance restoration projects.
Live from the #PolicyAgora 💬 1st panel insights:
1⃣Access to funding remains an issue in Europe
2⃣Education & training must be reinforced in public sector & civil society
3⃣Civil society & public authorities must collaborate to put heritage at the heart of all public policies pic.twitter.com/4RTOvz4GYh— Europa Nostra (@europanostra) October 8, 2024
Panel 2 – The road ahead: Towards more resilient heritage ecosystems
Moderated by Jermina Stanojev of the HERKUL Institute at KU Leuven, the second panel discussed the theme of resilience. With special emphasis on natural and man-made disasters, the speakers explored various subtopics each was called to address, ranging from climate change and emergency responses to earthquakes and the condition of cultural heritage during armed conflicts. There was a wealth of experience and insights shared by practitioners who are working with communities for and with cultural heritage.
The panel was headlined by Themis Christophidou, Director General of Regional and Urban Policy Department at the European Commission, who made it clear that cultural heritage – especially restoration-based projects – have historically been supported by cohesion funds. The Director General stated: “Cultural heritage binds us across borders and generations as the story of our shared values”.
Shortly after this comment, Tiziana Vicario, Project Manager of the ProCultHer project, noted that the project is financed by the cohesion programme, as it aims to bring together all related stakeholders to ensure horizontal support and cooperation in emergencies.
Moving on to the topic of climate change and its impact on heritage, in a sobering statement, Andrew Potts, Climate and Heritage Advisor to Europa Nostra stated: “We need to push for Europe to continue to keep to its climate commitments. With a 3°C increase, almost half of Europe’s heritage will perish”.
For Franziska Haas, President of ICOMOS ISCES, legislation for climate change and heritage protection is only one side of the coin. More importantly, there needs to be attention to implementation, to the process of adaptation. Building on this point, Ihor Poshyvailo stressed that during the war in Ukraine “the most important thing is to train people”. Whether it is a man-made or natural disaster, the key factor to manage effectively the risk is to have well-equipped teams.
To this comment, Lorenzo Venezia, a young heritage professional representing ESACH, made a pertinent observation that “while younger generations are willing to participate to help resolve the complex problems that heritage faces, it is very difficult to move into paid roles after their training programmes”. These remarks point to observations made earlier by other participants in Panel one on the lack of institutional support for heritage professionals which often leads to a subsequent loss of skills and expertise, as employment opportunities remain scarce.
Europa Nostra’s SG, @SneskEN, & the President of the Romanian Order of Architects, Ștefan Bâlici, gave closing remarks highlighting main messages for the Bucharest Manifesto as the outcome of the #PolicyAgora 2024 & contribution to the future #EU #CulturalCompass 🇪🇺 More soon! pic.twitter.com/9tMHWjyOuE
— Europa Nostra (@europanostra) October 8, 2024
Closing session
To wrap up a very productive afternoon full of insightful remarks about the current state of affairs, Ștefan Bâlici, on behalf of the Romanian Order of Architects, and Sneška Quaedvlieg-Mihailović, on behalf of Europa Nostra, took the stage one final time to summarise a very multifaceted conversation highlighting the importance of carrying the message to the people who hold the future of cultural heritage in their hands, namely younger generations of heritage professionals and policymakers.
Before closing the session, Sneška Quaedvlieg-Mihailović announced the location of the European Cultural Heritage Summit 2025: “We are confronted with an immense series of threats and emergencies, and we need to be prepared for these. It is a dramatic situation, but there is light. We can adapt and we can be resilient. To channel the energy of all civil society activity, and our projects, the next Summit will be in Brussels, to bring a message not only to Belgium, but to the European Union as a whole.”
The key highlights of this year’s Policy Agora meeting will be reflected in the Bucharest Manifesto, soon to be published by Europa Nostra and the Romanian Order of Architects.
More information
Agora: programme booklet | video recording | photo selection | x thread | instagram stories
